> > Perhaps the player-specific code could be made a plugin-like module
> > that differs for each model, and the Rockbox-oriented code should
> > remain as it is.
>
> I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind this suggestion at all.
> What benefit is expected to be gained from it?

You are always quite harsh when replying. Thank you for the effort; I
do appreciate that you took the time to reply. I wonder if If I have
given you the wrong impression. I am trying to learn about this
project, and there are several ways to do it. One of them is to
participate on rare occasions on the dev list. I have been interested
in furthering the goals of Rockbox, but I prefer to only do so when I do
not interfere with it's functioning, i.e., make trouble, start
controversy, flames, attacks, etc. If you would prefer that I would
remain totally passive, and read only, never post, I can do that.

I thought the suggestion seemed reasonable. The various settings that
collectively belong to a player or a class/architecture for players will
have things in it that are unique. If I understand correctly, all
PortalPlayer-based machines have things in common, for instance.
Collecting code into an interface, or API/ABI, library might make it
more portable. Sort of a hardware abstraction layer would be the
eventual goal. I am thinking of the DX9/DX10 system for Windows
graphics, on a much smaller scale. Or OpenGL, if you prefer. I have
not yet tried to examine any of the code, perhaps this has already been
done.

I am not suggesting a major rewrite, nor criticizing anything, just
wondering if as you go, you might gradually work with an eye toward
creating such a model, not just for settings, but for
anything/everything.
Such a model might encourage faster porting to new players. Again,
not knowing the design of the Rockbox code base, I don't have a clue how
feasible it is, but as I said, you may take it with as many grains of
salt as you need.

If you like, you can suggest to me what I need to do to begin to
understand Rockbox. Should I download a prepackaged tar ball, or should
I use, uh, what are you using, SVN? I think a recent snapshot would be
adequate, since I am only reading code at this point, not writing it.